Drop catch for child&#39;s high chair



y 1, 1960 E. G. BROWN 2,938,574

DROP CATCH FOR CHILD'S HIGH CHAIR Filed May 2, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR F/GJ ESTHER G. ERQWIV H57? ATTORNEY May 31, 1960 E. G. BROWN 2,938,574

DROP CATCH FOR CHILD'S HIGH CHAIR Filed May 2, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR ESTHER RQW/V HE ATTORNEY nited States Patent DROP CATCH-FOR CHI LDS HIGH CHAIR Esther G. Brown, 119 Albc'marle SW., Roanoke, Va.

Filed Mai 2, 1958, Sen'No. 732,739

4 Claims. (Cl. 155-188) This invention relates to a drop catch or catchall for a childs high chair and has for its primary object to provide an improved drop. catch for catching food or other things falling from or below the level of the tray or seat of a high chair.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved drop catch whereby a high chair is surrounded at front and sides by a trough projecting outwardly from and tightly embracing the chair about or below and adjacent to its seat, for catching anything falling below the level of the chair seat.

An additional object of the invention is to provide an improved drop catch having a cover of plastic or other flexible, waterproof material and wire or like framing means attached to the cover, the framing means and cover being of such arrangement and construction as to surround the high chair at or immediately below its seat with a waterproof trough for catching liquids or solids spilled or dropped from the chair.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved drop catch made'of flexible, waterproof material and a plurality of framing members attached thereto, and'capablenot only of forming a catchall trough about the front and sides of the chair but of being folded into relatively small compass for ready handling;

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved drop catch for a high chair which forms a waterproof trough about the front and sides of the chair and is supported by the back and either the foot rest or front legs of the chair.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter in the detailed description, be particularly pointed out in the appended claims, and be illustrated in'the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure lis a perspective view of a childs high chair towhicha preferred embodiment of the drop catch of the present invention has been applied;

Figure 2 is a rear elevational view of the chair of Figure'l;

Figure 3is a side elevational view of the chair of Figure 1;

Figure 4 isaplan view of the chair of Figure 1;

Figure 5 is a plan view on an enlarged scale of the drop'catch removed from the chair;

Figure 6'is a perspective view showing the drop catch in the course of being applied to the chair of Figure 1; and

Figure7 is a view of the drop catch of Figure 5 in folded condition.

Referring. now in-detail to the drawings, in which like reference characters designate like parts, the improved drop catch of the present invention has been illustrated applied to a conventional type of childs high chair 1 having a seat 2 supported at the corners on four downwardly divergent legs 3, a back 4, arms 5 and a tray 6 supported on the arms and projecting forwardly beyond the-seat. Also conventionally, the chair 1 is shown as having'a foot rest 7, carried by and projecting forwardly from the legs 3 below the seat 2, and a strap 8 connecting the undersides of the seat and tray 6 as an aid in preventing dislodgment of the latter.

Designated as 9, the drop catch or catchall is comprised of a trough or upwardly concave trough-forming body lii substantially V-shaped insection and U-shaped in plan to surround, extend about or encompass the front and sides'of the high chair 1. Having inner and outer sides 11 and 12, respectively, joined or merging at the bottom and diverging or sloping away from each other upwardly therefrom, the trough 10 is formed of plastic-, rubberized fabric or like flexible, waterproof material and may be of either one-piece or seamed construction.

Designed to enclose the front and sides of the chair from substantially the level of the seat 2 to the bottom of the trough 10 and to be applied to a chair without modification of the latter, the drop catch has the outer side 12 of the trough stiflened or reinforced, at least in part, by wire or like stiffening, reinforcing or frame means 13 which, at the front, rest or are supported on the foot rest or like element 7. The inner side 11 of the trough 10 requires no stilfening but preferably has its upper edge 14' elasticized or made resilient, at least at the sides, as by one or more elastic bands 15 stitched to or threaded through the material, to accommodate the drop catch to fit chairs of diiferent size and ensure that in each case the upper edge 14 will fit tightly about the front andsides of the seat 2, or, as in the illustrated embodiment, about the legs 3 immediately below theseat. For a chair, such as that illustrated, having a connecting strap 8 between the tray 6 and seat 2, the inner side 11 at the front is slotted centrally, as at 16, adjacent its upper edge 14 to permit insertion of the strap through the inner side without interfering with the tight fit of the upper'edge with the chair.

The stilfening means 13 may be in the-form of a continuous wire orrod bounding the outer side 12 of the trough 10 and with its upper and lower courses spaced intermediate its rear extremities by suitable wire spacers to position the upper edge 17 of the outer side at the desired level.- However, such a construction is cumbersome and makes the drop catch, as a whole, difficult to handle, Accordingly, to adapt the drop catch for foldingand ready handling, it is preferred, instead of having the stiffening means continuous, to construct the outer side 12 of the trough 10 of a plurality of connected fiat panels, stiffened or reinforced, as necessary, by separate or individual stilfeners or frame members 18 and foldable between panels to permit the drop catch, when not in use, to be reduced to relatively small compass.

To the above end, the outer side 12 of the trough 10 of the illustrated embodiment is formed of a frontpanel 19 connected at either side through an interposedorintervening corner panel 20 to one of a pair of side panels 21, each of the latter of which is connected at the rear to one of a pair of rear or end panels 22. So divided or panelled and with the rear panels 22 connectible back of or behind the back 4 of the chair 1 as by ties, snaps or like suitable connecting means 23, the outer side 12 of the illustrated trough 10 has stiifeners or frame members 18 only in its front, corner and rear panels, 19, 20 and 22, repectively. In the preferred panel construction of the outer side 12, the several panels conveniently are substantially trapezoidal and the stiffened panels and their correspondingly configured stiffeners 18 are flat. Additionally, at least the front and corner panels 19 and 20 are wider at top than bottom and the rear panels 22, when connected at their contiguous edges behind the chair 1, project outwardly or outstand from opposite sides of the latter. With this construction and the lower course 24 of the stiffener 18 of the the front panel 19 lying along and supported on the foot rest 7, the outer side 12 is enabled to hold its upper edge 17 taut by virtue of the pull of the weight of the front and corner panels 19 and 20 and at the desired distance or .means '32 to the other.

3 spacing from the front and sides of the chair. At the same time, the upper edge 14 at the front is maintained at proper level, preferably substantially that of the seat 2, by the support afforded by the foot rest 7 and at the back by a suitable connection to the chair. To adapt the drop catch to chairs of diflerent size, it is preferred that the two side panels 21 be elasticized along their bottom edges 25 and, if desired, each of the corner panels 20 has a positioning tie 26 at'its bottom for tying and positioning it relative to the front legs 3 of the chair.

While the trough 10 may be tied at the back to the chair, it preferably is supported on the back 4 of the chair, without modification of the latter, by providing as part of the drop catch a slip cover 27, conveniently formed of the same flexible, waterproof material as the trough and having a downwardly opening pocket 28 fittable or slidable from above over the back of the chair, While the depth of the pocket 28, and thus of the front portion 29, should be no greater than the extent of the back 4 of the chair above the arms 5, the back portion 30 of the cover 27 preferably extends from the upper end of the back below its lower end substantially to the level of the bottom of the trough 10. So extending, the back portion 30 of the cover may be attached at either side adjacent its lower edge to one of the otherwise free or rear ends 31 of the inner side 11 of the trough 10, preferably permanently, as by stitching, to one'end, and detachably, as by snaps or like connecting Thus supporting or suspending the trough 10 at the rear from the back 4 of the chair and desirably having the bottom edge 33 of its front portion 29 elasticized to fit chair backs of different sizes, the cover in cooperation with the foot rest 7, effectively supports the trough 10 at'the desired height relative to the chair with the upper edges 14 and 17 of its inner and outer sides 11 and 12 substantially at the level of the chair seat 2. I

At the outset of the description of the panel construction of the outer side 12 of the trough 10 of the preferred embodiment, it was stated that the purpose of this construction was to enable the drop catch to be folded into relatively small compass. This is readily accomplishable by stitching or otherwise attaching or securing each of the stiffeners 18 to the material forming the associated of the stiffened panels with the contiguous edges or sides of the stiffeners in the front panel 19 and each of the corner panels 20 spaced and flexibly connected by a web 34 of the material forming the trough and of sufiicient width to permit the corner panels to be infolded or folded onto the front panel. Since the only other stiffened portions of the drop catch are the rear panels 22 and the latter are connected to the corner panels by the unstiffened side panels 21, the drop catch, when not in use, is foldable for ready handling into a relatively small parcel, determined in two dimensions by the height and depth of the front panel 19 and in the third by the collective thickness of the stiffeners 18 and the material forming the trough 10 and cover 27.

From the above detailed description, it will be apparen that there has been provided an improved drop catch for a childs'high chair, the trough of which is supported at' the front on the foot rest of the chair and may be supported at the back by a cover slippable over the back of the chair and which, inits preferred'form, has the outer side of the trough constructed of individually stiffened panels so that the drop catch, when not in use, can be folded into relatively small compass. It should be understood that the'described and disclosed embodiment is merely exemplary of the invention and that all modifications are intended to be included which do not depart from either the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

prising a trough of flexible waterproof material surrounding front and sides of said chair, said trough having an unstitfened inner side embracing said chair substantially at the level of a seat thereof and an outer side joined at the bottom to and projecting outwardly fr'om said inner side, said outer side including a plurality of individually-stiflened readily foldable panels a-lower course of one of which supports said trough at the front by engagement with means on said chair, and means connecting rear ends of said trough' to said chair for supporting said trough at the back.

2. A foldable drop catch for a childs high chair comprising a trough of flexible waterproof material surrounding front and sides of said chair, said trough having an unstiifened inner side enclosing front and'sides'of said chair from substantially the level of a seat thereof to the depth of said trough, an outer side of said trough being formed 'of a plurality of relatively foldablelconnected panels, individual stiffening means in andfoldable relatively With a front and certain other of said panels, said stiffening means in said 'front panel having a bottom course disposed to rest on and be supported by a foot rest of said chair, and webs of said material flexibly connecting adjoining stiffened panels and spacing contiguous sides of said stiffening means therein for relative folding thereof, said trough at the rear being connected to andsupported on said chair.

3. A foldable drop catch for a childs high chair comprising a trough of flexible waterproof material surrounding front and sides of said chair, said trough having an unstiffened inner side elasticized on its upper edge for tightly embracing front and sides'of said chair substantially at a level of a seat thereof, an outer side of said trough being formed of a plurality of relatively foldable connected panels, individual stiffening means in and relatively foldable with a front and certain other of said panels, said stiffening means in said front panel having a bottom course disposed to rest on and be supported by a foot rest of said chair, and Webs of said material flexibly connecting adjoining stiffened panels and spacing contiguous sides of said stiffening means therein for relative folding thereof, said trough at the rear being connected to and supported on said chair.

4. A foldable drop catch for a childs high chair comprising a trough of flexible waterproof material surrounding front and sides of said chair, said trough having an unstitfened inner side enclosing front and sides of said chair from substantially the level of a seat thereof to the depth of said trough, an outer side of said trough being formed of a plurality of relatively foldable connected trapezoidal panels, a substantially flat individual frame member in each of a front and adjoining corner panels, said frame members being spaced and flexibly connected for relative folding by an intervening web of said material, a frame member in each of a pair of rear panelsand adapted on connection of contiguous edges thereof behind said chair to project outwardly beyond sides thereof, said frame member in said front panel having a lower course lying' on and being supported by a foot rest of said chair, and a cover slidable from above over a back of said chair and having a back portion extending below a level of said seat, said back portion below said level being connected at one side to one rear end and connectible at the other side to the other rear end of said inner side of said trough for supporting said trough at the back.

References Citedin the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,050,205 Conley Jan. 14, 1913 2,534,502 Dewey Dec. 19, 1950 2,540,685 Mayer Feb. 6, 1951 2,585,434 Caponera Feb. 12, 1952 2,725,096 Granby Nov. 29, 1955 2,827,953 Jones Mar. 25, 1958 

